The US state of Michigan has passed two bills that decriminalise reselling a ticket for more than face value, and has banned ticket bots that buy up large amounts of event tickets.
Selling at inflated prices was illegal in state until Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bills, initiated last year by Senator Erika Geiss and Senator Tom Barrett, into law on October 1.
Senate Bills 384 and 385, which were passed by the state legislature in September, repeal Michigan’s 88-year-old law that made it a misdemeanour for individuals to trade tickets above face value.
The legislation requires that the sellers have physical possession or control of the ticket before offering it for resale, in an effort to protect consumers. The package also prohibits the practice of using, selling, purchasing, or possessing ticketing bot software.
It also bans the person owning, operating, or controlling a ticket website for an event scheduled at a venue in Michigan from using an internet domain name or subdomain in the ticket website’s URL that contains the name of the venue, the event, artist or any names that are “substantially similar.”
If the law is violated, the person will be guilty of a misdemeanour punishable by imprisonment for up to 93 days or a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
Image: Anirudh Koul – (CC BY 2.0) / Edited for size
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